Invented by Max Factor in 1930, and reaching peak popularity in the 90s, lip gloss is firmly back on the scene. With consistent year-on-year growth in demand since 2019, it has become one of the biggest makeup trends of the 2020s. Feeding this growth are a series of celebrity-born lip trends including Hailey Bieber's ‘brownie glazed lips’ and Kelli Anne Sewell’s ‘gym lips’. Furthermore, there’s a whole new generation of non-sticky lip glosses like NYX Professional’s Makeup Butter Lip Gloss, as well as options like Maybelline’s Lifter Gloss that play into the ‘no-makeup’ makeup trend with subtle hues, but also the inclusion of hydrating and repairing ingredients that help nourish, hydrate, and protect your lips.
What exactly is lip gloss?
Sold as a transparent or coloured liquid or soft solid that turns tacky when dry, lip gloss is typically designed to add a temporary glossy finish to your natural lips whilst also giving them a much fuller, plumper appearance. Also available in finishes such as frosted, glittery, metallic, opalescent, and even UV-reactive, lip gloss typically comes in a squeezable plastic tube, hard plastic tube, or glass tube, and is applied directly onto the lips using either a doe-foot applicator, sponge applicator, lip brush, or finger.
What is lip gloss made from?
Commonly manufactured from a petroleum jelly or beeswax base which gives lip gloss its slippery spreadable form, in the case of cruelty-free and vegan lip gloss a soy wax, carnauba wax, or shea butter is often used instead. Meanwhile, that trademark glossy, mirror-like aesthetic is the result of a natural or synthetic emollient like lanolin, castor oil, or jojoba oil. Furthermore, depending on the formula, fragrances, flavourings, pigments, plant extracts, and natural minerals are sometimes also added.
What are the different types of lip gloss?
Flavoured lip gloss: Invented by Bonne Bell in 1973 and sold under the Lip Smackers brand, which remains popular today, flavoured lip gloss gives your lips a glossy appearance just like regular lip gloss, but also incorporates flavourings like strawberry, bubblegum, and cherry.
Coloured lip gloss: Used to achieve glossy coloured lips, coloured lip glosses contain far less pigment than lip liners, lip crayons, lipsticks, and lip oils, which makes for a much more subtle colour transformation. Available in a plethora of colours, subtle pink lip glosses are among the most popular right now, as too are subtle nudes, pastel colours, and autumn-esque tones.
Glittery lip gloss: Available with sparkly, holographic, and opalescent finishes, glittery lip glosses usually contain purified and crushed Mica, a naturally occurring mineral that has an opalescent or sparkling, glitter-like gleam.
Transparent lip gloss: Transparent lip glosses, just like the formula originally developed by Max Factor, are designed to give your lips a glossy appearance without adding colour. Suitable for application directly onto makeup-free lips, they can also be applied on top of lipstick.
SPF lip gloss: SPF lip gloss gives you a glossy, and sometimes coloured, lip transformation as well as added protection against the sun’s UV rays, which can cause premature ageing, sunburn, and skin cancer. Typically available with an SPF of 10-35, they generally don’t provide as much protection as lip balms which have an SPF range of 10-50+.
